Just as in the beginning of the Ramayana, I was a bit
overwhelmed reading about all of these new characters with different identities
and names. This reading starts off with Shantanu marrying a woman who is the
Ganga river incarnate. She drowns their babies because she is giving birth to
eight gods who are being punished. Shantanu then falls in love with another
woman, a fisherman’s daughter (he must have a thing for women who live in
water). Pandu cannot have children because of the curse that was put upon him
when he shot a deer while it was mating. His curse was that he would die the
same way--making love.
Purochana builds a house for the Pandavas. They esape
through a tunnel after setting it on fire. While they were hiding, Bhima kills
a rakshasa. He then marries one of the sisters of the rakshasa, Hidimbi. They
have a son Ghatotkacha. Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, realizes that the
Pandavas are in disguise as brahmins. Arjuna wins Draupadi as a bride. Kunti
tells the brothers to share what they won, so they shared Draupadi. Ironically,
she had five husbands in a previous life. Wow, it would be exhausting to have 5
husbands!
Photo of Draupadi and her 5 husbands. Found online.
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